Paul Graham on Founder Control

In a dozen companies we’ve funded, the
founders still had a majority of the board seats after the series
A round.

I feel like we’re at a tipping point here. A lot of VCs still act
as if founders retaining board control after a series A is unheard-of.
A lot of them try to make you feel bad if you even ask—as if
you’re a noob or a control freak for wanting such a thing. But the
founders I heard from aren’t noobs or control freaks. Or if they
are, they are, like Mark Zuckerberg, the kind of noobs and control
freaks VCs should be trying to fund more of.

Knowing that founders will keep control of the board may even help
VCs pick better. If they know they can’t fire the founders, they’ll
have to choose founders they can trust. And that’s who they should
have been choosing all along.